Man arrested for urinating on Seattle police car

A man who officers say urinated on a Seattle patrol car in the University District was unaware officers were watching him, as a spokesman put it, “mid-stream.”

About 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, officers parked their patrol car in a lot at Northeast 47th Street and University Way Northeast and walked a directed patrol – an effort to reduce street crime and increase officers’ visibility, Seattle Police Department spokesman Jonah Spagenthal-Lee said in a statement.

The officers arrested a man, went on a foot patrol, and said they returned to find another man urinating on the city-owned vehicle.

“The man saw the officers, who told the suspect to zip up his pants and put his hands on a nearby wall so officers could pat him down,” Spagenthal-Lee said. “There were no other cars parked in the lot at the time.

“As officers were talking to the man, a crowd of people gathered around them in the parking lot. Out of concern for their own safety, the officers took the suspect to the North Precinct, cited him for public urination, and released him.”